Orange glow and smoke from near power cord

I had been a happy owner of an HP G60 for just over a year. A few days ago the computer suddenly stopped working. I got a phone call from home that there was smoke coming from the laptop and there was a bright orange glow which came from the back left of the computer for a few seconds. Since the laptop was 23 days out of warranty tech support told me I would have to pay to get it fixed for nearly the cost of a replacement. Since I have been working with electronics for most of my life I decided to take it appart to see what was wrong. I found that the insulation on the cable bundle which runs past the left display hinge had worn away causing the power wire (and maybe others) to short to the hinge. The result was a lots of melted insulation and even some of the wires had melted from the heat.

Re: Orange glow and smoke from near power cord

I had almost the same exact issue. It happened when I plugged the power adapter in to the unit after starting it up via battery. No power surges, on a surge protector, no noticeable wear to the computer or the adapter connector, and then suddenly smoke and what appeared to be an internal fire in the laptop.After dealing with HP EXTENSIVELY and being told that they would fix free of charge from several different technicians that were escalating the problem, I have now been told they will NOT fix it free of charge despite being obviously faulty equipment. I was also told that there were no similar cases to my issue, and the number of promises and lies I have received from HP continues to add up.My issue also occurred about 2-3 months outside of warranty. I am extremely disappointed with HP's horrible customer service, and unless this issue is resolved I will never buy another HP and will highly recommend to all my friends and tech support customers to not buy HPs due to obviously shoddy parts and an EXTREMELY horrible customer support team. I have so far spent 8 days (about 4-5 hours of hold and talk time) waiting for this to be resolved, I am waiting for a response from yet another department and another promise of a call back in 24-48 hours which have yet to be followed through on.

Re: Orange glow and smoke from near power cord

Mine ended up getting fixed under warranty. It took some pushing. I used "Contact the CEO" on the HP homepage. I also found that using the chat service and pointing the outsourced person to the website where I posted the pictures helped. Of course the only way I got the pictures to prove this was dangerous and a situation which had to exist long prior to the failure was to take the machine apart.

Once I got connected to the right person at HP the process was smooth.

d__dub wrote:

After speaking to the first non-out sourced person from HP in the escalation department, things seem to be moving forward. I'm currently tentatively optimistic about the results.

Re: Orange glow and smoke from near power cord

I am now on my second power cord the first one overheated and this one is doing the same. I took a nap with it a little too close to me and woke up with a second degree burn on my hip. I am puzzled as to why this problem isn't being addressed, did HP miss the whole Toyota debacle.

Also note that the notebook is not to be used on your body or on soft surfaces such as bed, couch or carpet. The soft surface blocks the fans that are on the bottom of this product which helps to keep the notebook cool. There is a warning that applies to the adapter as well. The adapter should be on a hard flat surface at all times. We realize that the floor is considered a hard surface but once you add a rug or carpet, it becomes a soft surface.

Although I am an HP Employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.

Make it easier for other people to find solutions, by marking my answer “Accept as Solution” if it solves your problem.

Re: Orange glow and smoke from near power cord

I 100% agree. These are not "laptops". They are notebook computers. You need to give them room to breath otherwise you will kill them in pretty short order. A hist to keep the heat down too would be to run with the CPU in adaptive clocking mode rather than on full high speed all the time. That along with have the other devices set to turn off when not in use will significantly reduce the cooling requirements if the rig is unused for a while. Choosing max power savings mode with do that for you.